


Love Cubed

by RainbowLuthor



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, DEO Agents are zookeepers and veterinarians, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, I'm really just using this to vent about animal rights, Kid Fic, Lena Luthor Needs a Hug, Lena is so soft in this, Possible Slow burn, Protective Kara Danvers, She's doing her best guys, Sorry?, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Very minimal angst, being a single parent is hard, so is Alex, zoo au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 08:32:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14973245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowLuthor/pseuds/RainbowLuthor
Summary: After Lena Luthor takes in her six year old niece, she meets Kara Danvers and the Superfriends and realizes that there is more to life than work and routines.orThe AU in which Lena doesn't think she's a mother, but she totally is and where everyone is just generally really excited about animals.





	Love Cubed

Lena is nothing if not a person of habit; has been since she was a prepubescent child. She needs order, routine. That is how success is made, after all. Her alarm is set to go off at five o’clock on the dot and she is to be out of the house by six. She goes over her schedule with her personal assistant at 6:30 and is usually attending her first meeting by seven. Research and development begin at noon and if she’s lucky, she’ll slip in some food at one o’clock in the midst of all of the paperwork. More meetings take place between two and seven and she’s usually on her way home by eight and, after some downtime, she’s in bed by ten o’clock PM. Simple (for the most part) and highly effective. Even her brother going off the tracks and massacring thousands of citizens did naught to put a stop to her daily system. Taking in his six-year-old daughter, however…

 

Well, Lena is no longer quite as organized.

 

Squeezing in school projects and play-dates and soccer games and conversations about Disney characters and eating actual meals proves to be a bit of a challenge in the beginning. For quite a while actually. For the first few weeks, Lena had to talk herself out of sending little Rosemary (Lex hated the L themed names almost as much as Lena still does, so Rosemary it was) off to live with Lionel’s sister on a nearly nightly basis. She would never actually do it, of course. But, boy, was the idea tempting. Lena never believed she would be a mother. There wasn’t any time in her busy schedule to even entertain the thought. She was all too happy to be an aunt when Lex came home with a surprise little pink bundle when Lena was eighteen. But a mother? Completely different and absolutely stressful. It took her ( _ _several__ ) tantrums and nightmares and teary ‘I hate yous’ to realize that she can’t raise a child like she runs a company. It just won’t work.

 

So Lena takes Rosemary in at the beginning of February, but they don’t fall into a somewhat predictably comfortable routine until late August. The two of them are still working out the kinks, Lena will admit. Because it isn’t easy going from an aunt and a niece that only see each other every other weekend to a pseudo mother and daughter that rely on each other to be okay.

 

Rosemary enjoys spending time at L-Corp after school and on Sundays. Lena thinks it might have something to do with the fact that Jess sneaks her candy when she believes Lena isn’t looking. (And even if Lena doesn’t see it happen, Rosemary always offers her some of the sweets, so the CEO finds out about it regardless.) Rosemary’s favorite time of the week, however, is Saturday. It’s the one day that Lena has off and the one day that they spend the whole day together. Sometimes, they do simple things like movie marathons or picnics at the park or playing with puppies at the animal shelter that Lena is partners with. But other times, on special occasions, they do more exciting things. Rosemary wins her class spelling bee on Friday, so Lena decides to take her to the zoo on Saturday to celebrate. Lena usually doesn’t want anything to do with zoos or circuses or even aquariums, but after staying up all night thoroughly searching, she finds a smaller one outside of the city that only takes in sick, injured, or orphaned animals, and then promptly releases them back into the wild or to wildlife sanctuaries once they are well and able again. So she purchases two full-day passes online and sets her alarm for 6:30 AM before promptly calling it a night.

 

__*_ _

 

Lena doesn’t tell Rosemary where they're going when she wakes her up and starts getting her ready for the day. But the little girl doesn’t give up asking the entire time. She asks when Lena tells her to wear her tennis shoes. She asks when Lena reminds her to grab her coat. She asks when Lena puts sunscreen and sandwich bags full of goldfish crackers in her purse. She asks when Lena calls Jess and tells her to only contact her if it’s an absolute emergency. She asks when Lena grabs the keys to her eco-friendly Lexus instead of calling her driver. She asks and asks and asks, but Lena stays strong. Even when Rosemary looks up at her with wide blue eyes and a sweet smile. Lena can make businessmen twice her age quiver in their seats. She can handle a pouty six-year-old. Usually.

 

“If I let you listen to the Frozen Broadway soundtrack, will you stop asking where we’re going?” Lena negotiates. Rosemary scrunches up her nose before nodding. Lena smiles in victory and places a hand on the little girl’s shoulder, guiding her out of the penthouse.

 

“You would've let me listen to it anyway,” Rosemary comments and Lena rolls her eyes.

 

God, too true.

 

Rosemary is belting out the chorus of _Monster_ with the enthusiasm of a golden retriever when Lena finally _finally_ pulls into the zoo parking lot. That's an hour of her life she'll never get back. Lena hopes Rosemary will be tired enough to sleep in the car on the ride home so that the older brunette won't have to endure all of those damn songs again. Rosemary presses her face against the window, trying to determine where it is that they are, but the main gate is blocked by a jungle's amount of trees and she can't see anything past them. Lena helps her out of her booster seat, zips up her niece’s jacket, and makes sure Rosemary’s shoelaces are double-knotted before leading her up to the front gate. Before they can even make it to the trees, Rosemary comes to an abrupt halt when the sound of an elephant trumpeting fills the air. She lets out a gasp and whips her head around frantically. Lena smothers a smile when the six-year-old’s vision snaps up to her.

 

“Auntie Lena?” she whispers, voice filled with nothing but awe. Lena can no longer hold back a beaming grin as she crouches down and takes Rosemary’s hands.

 

“Do you wanna see some animals?”

 

Rosemary eagerly nods her head. “Yes! Yes, please! Are there tigers?”

 

Lena chuckles and hums in confirmation. She checked the zoo website the night before to make sure that there were tigers. She knows how much her niece loves the big, stripey cats.

 

“There are two, I think. Why don’t we go find out?” Rosemary grips Lena’s hand tightly when the latter stands up straight. The two of them make their way through the trees to the gate and Lena shows the man at the ticket booth the code for their passes that she has saved on her phone. He scans the device before giving them a bright smile and letting them through. Lena stops them just inside the gate so that she can put sunscreen on Rosemary’s face and arms. It’s the middle of September, and the weather is starting to cool down, but Rosemary’s skin is sensitive and Lena doesn’t want the girl to be in pain all night.

 

“What do you wanna see first?” Lena queries as she snaps the cap closed and slips the bottle back into her purse.

 

“Tigers!”

 

The CEO chuckles and turns to scan the map a few feet away. “It says that the tigers are toward the back, sweetheart. We’ll get to them eventually. Is there anything else you want to see first?”

 

Rosemary stands on her tiptoes and squints up at the map until Lena picks her up so that she can see it better. Rosemary pats her cheek gratefully before turning back to the colorful guide.

 

“Look, Auntie. Giant pandas. You love giant pandas,” Rosemary says, pointing to the little cartoon drawing of the black and white bear. Lena hums. She does love pandas. She has donated millions to the WWF just to help protect them and their natural habitat.

 

“Can we go see them?” Rosemary inquires.

 

“Sure. And it looks like we’ll be passing the hippos on the way there. You did that project on them, remember?”

 

Rosemary bobs her head. “Hippopotamus amphibius. It is a large, mostly herbivorous, semi-aquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. Despite their enormous size, they are great swimmers and can hold their breath for up to five minutes underwater. When completely submerged, their ears and nostrils fold shut to keep water out,” she recites as she swings Lena’s hand back and forth. Lena can’t help but smile proudly.

 

“Good job, Ro. Do you know anything about pandas?”

 

“Ailuropoda melanoleuca. Native to south-central China, they prefer habitats with many species of bamboo and access to water such as old growth forests. They have poor vision and an acute sense of smell.”

 

“I think you can give these zookeepers a run for their money,” Lena remarks, sidestepping a rambunctious group of toddlers and their mothers who have nothing but pain and regret in their eyes.  

 

“I don’t wanna be a zookeeper. I wanna be a veterinarian.”

 

Lena bites her cheek and nods. “Alright. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Vet school is harder to get into than medical school.”

 

“I know, but I’m the smartest kid in my class. I can do it.”

 

And there’s that Luthor confidence.

 

Lena just squeezes Rosemary’s hand and gently pulls her along. They stop once to watch the hippos sleep for a solid fifteen minutes and then again to locate the right path to the pandas. Rosemary squeals excitedly and releases her grasp on Lena’s extremity to skip ahead when she sees the sign indicating the giant panda enclosure. She stands on her tiptoes and leans against the glass, eyes flickering around rapidly. Lena simpers and crouches down next to her, pointing to a panda munching away at a stalk of bamboo in a tree. Rosemary beams.

 

“It’s so cute, Auntie Lena! Do you know its name?”

 

Lena scans the glass for a plaque and spots one a few feet away. She makes her way over and quickly reads it.

 

“It says his name is Oliver. He fell out of a tree and broke three bones in his leg, but after five longs months of wearing a splint and physical therapy, he’s to be released back into the wild in two weeks time,” Lena informs.

 

Rosemary’s wide eyes track Oliver’s every movement. “He’s all better?” she asks and Lena nods.

 

“He sure is.”

 

“Good.” Rosemary nods her head once and then smiles and waves at the panda. Of course, she knows it can’t see her and even if it did, it can’t respond in any way, but Lena gets a cute new wallpaper for her phone out of it.

 

*

 

After spending four hours roaring at the lions, feeding the penguins, naming the zebras, singing to the macaws, and holding a banana boa, Rosemary decides she’s hungry. So Lena, rich with new adorable photos of her niece, happily leads her through the zoo to the food court. The six-year-old only takes ten seconds to decide she wants chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese. Lena finds one of the restaurants that serves what the little girl wants and Rosemary is delighted when her nuggets come out shaped like animals. Lena eats her own chicken salad as she watches Rosemary act out scenes with her elephant and giraffe nuggets. It’s adorable and simultaneously relieving.

 

Rosemary is a gifted child and, sometimes, Lena worries that she doesn’t spend enough time just being a six year old. Sure, Rosemary has play-dates and watches Disney movies, but that’s in between the academic competitions and her desire to learn Spanish. Many times, Lena wants to just tell Rosemary no. She herself grew up winning science fairs and chess tournaments and she ended up miserable. But then she remembers that Rosemary _wants_ to spend her childhood that way. She _wants_ to learn and absorb and participate. She genuinely enjoys it. And that’s where the two brunettes differ. Lena won’t be her parents. She will never force Rosemary to do anything she doesn’t want to do. If one day, she decides she doesn’t want to be a child prodigy anymore, then Lena will support her wholeheartedly. For now, though, she’ll enjoy the little moments that poke through.

 

*

 

With the way her eyes are shining, Lena isn’t sure if Rosemary is about to laugh or burst into tears. She snaps a photo anyway before focusing her own attention on the two tiger cubs, one a Malayan and the other a white Bengal. The six-year-old bounces on her heels excitedly.

 

“Can I get closer, Auntie?” she inquires. Lena looks to her right and then to her left before pointing to a big boulder a few feet away. It isn’t necessarily closer to the tigers, but it definitely proposes a better view of them.

 

“Go ahead and go over there. But be careful, okay? And tell me when you want down. I’ll help you.”

 

The last thing she needs is her niece falling and cracking her head open, or worse, falling into an enclosed space with two tigers. Even if they are just babies.

 

“Okay! Thank you!” She happily skips over to the rock and climbs atop it. Lena watches with bated breath, only relaxing once Rosemary comfortably and securely sits down on the boulder. The older brunette leans against the glass enclosure and watches the tiger cubs play with each other, occasionally glancing at her niece to make sure she’s okay.

 

“Your daughter is adorable.”

 

Lena jumps and whips around, coming face to face with a bespectacled blonde in a pastel cardigan, who wears a mildly sheepish expression.

 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

 

Lena clears her throat and fumbles her fingers. “No, it--Rosemary’s my niece. Not my… not my daughter. But thank you.”

 

“Oh! My apologies.”

 

“No, don’t worry about it,” Lena chuckles. “You aren’t the first to think I’m her mother.”

 

“You two just look so much alike.”

 

Lena’s smile feels a little more forced at that. She gets that a lot as well, which she doesn’t understand because she and Rosemary aren’t even blood-related. “So I’ve heard.”

 

“You know, I can probably get her permission to pet the tigers if you’d like,” the blonde says and Lena raises an eyebrow in surprise.

 

“Really? How?”

 

“My sister’s one of the vets here. She’s been looking after the cubs after they were taken from illegal breeders. She wouldn’t mind. And it’s completely safe. They aren’t even eating solid food yet.”

 

Lena captures her bottom lip in between her teeth in thought. Rosemary would absolutely love to pet the tigers. And she would get to meet a veterinarian in the process. And if this woman says it’s safe, well, she hasn’t given her a reason to not trust her. Unless she recognizes Lena as a Luthor and plans on hurting her by hurting Rosemary. Suddenly feeling a little uneasy, Lena chances a glance at her niece, who remains completely enthralled with her favorite animals.

 

“Hey, it’s alright. I won’t force you. She just seems to really like the tigers. I don’t think she’s blinked.”

 

Lena chuckles at that and holds a hand out. “Lena Luthor,” she says, waiting for any kind of indication that this woman has some kind of prejudice against her. But the blonde only beams brightly and happily shakes the extremity.

 

“Kara Danvers. At your service.”

 

Before Lena can respond, she hears Rosemary call out for her. Silently excusing herself, she heads over to her niece and helps her off of the boulder when she asks.

 

“Did you make a friend, Auntie?” Rosemary asks.

 

“I think so. She was talking to me about maybe petting the tigers.”

 

Rosemary gasps loudly and squeezes Lena’s hand. “Are you serious?”

 

Lena just nods with a smile. Rosemary squeals and pulls her aunt back over to Kara. The blonde gives the little girl a kind grin.

 

“Hello there.”

 

“Hi! Auntie Lena said we can pet the tigers? Is that true?”

 

“Well, I’ll have to ask my sister first, but I think there’s a pretty good chance.”

 

Rosemary bounces in her spot, body buzzing like she’s about to burst from excitement. Kara chuckles and gestures for the Luthor girls to follow her. The entire walk through the zoo, Rosemary lists fact after fact about all the different types of tigers. Kara looks at Lena with wide eyes every time the six-year-old says the scientific name for each species. Lena just shrugs a shoulder with an amused expression. It’s endlessly entertaining when people realize how intelligent her niece is.

 

They eventually stop in front of a two-story brick building with big glass windows. In bold metal words, **National City Zoo Veterinary Clinic** is embellished on the side. A sign that only permits employees is printed on the double doors and Kara turns to them with a small smile.

 

“You two have to stay out here while I go get my sister. I’ll only be a moment.”

 

Lena agrees and gently shakes Rosemary’s hand. The girl has yet to stop grinning and Lena finds herself wondering if her cheeks hurt. Rosemary starts whispering to herself, but Lena doesn’t bother trying to decipher what it is she’s saying. She knows it’s just what the six-year-old does when she’s excited or anxious.

 

Kara returns after almost ten minutes with a woman with short, auburn hair at her side.

 

“Hey, guys. This is my sister, Alex. Alex, this Lena and Rosemary.” Kara looks down at the little girl with a grin. “Alex said that you can pet the tigers. But you have to keep it a secret or else everyone will want to pet them. Can you do that?”

 

Rosemary nods her head vigorously. “Yes! I promise I can!”

 

Kara makes a soft noise of satisfaction. “Shall we then?”

 

Rosemary skips ahead jovially, making sure to stay close.

 

“Are you sure this is okay?” Lena asks Alex. “I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble.”

 

Alex waves her off. “It’s fine. I’m super close with the owner of the zoo. I get away with a lot of stuff, but I don’t think he minds all that much. As long as it doesn’t warrant unwanted paperwork.”

 

Lena laughs softly. She can relate. Her employees can do whatever they like in the R&D department, just as long as it won't cause her, themselves, the company, or any of their partners problems in the long run. The only way to create world-changing inventions is to let the mind run wild, after all.

 

“If you say so.”

 

*

 

“What does she feel like, Romy?” Lena asks, her phone out and recording as Rosemary slowly drags her hand over of the Malayan tiger cub’s fur.

 

“Kinda like the rug in the bathroom,” Rosemary says and Lena can’t help the laugh that bursts from her lips. She catches Kara’s joy-filled face out of the corner of her eye. Lena gasps in surprise and looks down when she feels something rub against her leg. The white Bengal tiger cub stares up at her with wide blue eyes and Lena’s heart starts pounding in her chest. She hesitantly bends down and pats the top of his head. In response, he lets out a soft noise that’s a cross between a growl and a purr.

 

“He likes you, Auntie,” Rosemary comments and Lena nods slowly.

 

“You said they were rescued from illegal breeders?” she asks.

 

“Yes, well, white Bengals are usually the product of inbreeding, unfortunately, and that can cause a lot of genetic defects. We work with a few organizations to prevent the inbreeding and one of them called us to let us know about these two. We rescued them and they’ve been with us ever since,” Alex informs

 

“Will they get to go into the wild?” Rosemary asks Alex purses her lips.

 

“We’re hoping they’ll get to go to a wildlife sanctuary in India. Once they’re old enough we’ll start attempting to teach them how to hunt. We aren’t sure if they’ll take to it though.”

 

Lena simpers. “Well, here’s to hoping.”

 

As soon as he realizes he isn’t going to get any more attention from Lena, the cub moves on and prances over to Rosemary, who’s all too delighted. As Lena watches her niece quietly communicate with the animals, ideas blossom in her mind. Ideas of organizations for younger generations that provide hands-on interactions with endangered animals. The safe ones, of course. But something that will teach them to protect these species by taking care of them and their environment and habitats. She would have to talk to Jess about it. She may be Lena’s assistant, but she’s also her number one confidante; the one person she knows she can trust.

 

“She looks really happy,” Lena hears Kara say from next to her. The brunette smiles and hums.

 

“You’ve just made her week. She loves tigers.”

 

Kara chortles. “I can tell. She knows more about them than my sister probably does.”

 

Lena lets her eyes scan over the blonde’s outfit. A yellow dress and a pink cardigan. “Do you work here as well? Are you just off today?”

 

“Oh, no. I don’t work here. I mean, I’ll come and help out around here when I can, but I’m actually a reporter. At CatCo?”

 

Lena’s lips part. “Anything I would’ve read?”

 

“Oh, I doubt it. You’re Lena Luthor and I mostly write puff pieces. But I did write an article about immigrant rights last month if you’re interested in that. I can email it to you?”

 

So Kara does know who she is. Lena doesn’t know if she should be worried or relieved about the lack of a reaction this reporter is having. Kara doesn’t seem the type to do anything other than stick up for the little guys, but Lena has learned that she can never be too sure. Nevertheless, she plants a soft smile on her face and nods with all of the professionalism she can muster up.

 

“Of course.”


End file.
